


one and the same

by dogparty



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Kitten!Stiles, Other, wolfdog!derek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-17
Updated: 2013-09-17
Packaged: 2017-12-26 20:50:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/970154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogparty/pseuds/dogparty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek is a grumpy dog living in a shelter. Stiles is a freshly orphaned kitten. Need I say more?</p>
            </blockquote>





	one and the same

**Author's Note:**

> I was watching Too Cute! and this idea struck me like a freight train, so inevitably, I wrote this.
> 
> Edit: I keep having to come back and fix little mistakes here and there. If you notice any misspellings or anything, let me know!

The house is big, but it feels small. There are many residents, inside and out. Outside, there are horses and foxes and bunnies and goats. Inside, there are birds and dogs and cats and even a tiny little skunk. The animals all get along, somewhat. Every now and again, a dog will snap at a cat for getting too frolicsome; or a horse will tramp after a fox for pulling the strands of its tail. But despite the exasperation and the tribulations, the animals are a family.

Occasionally, a new animal arrives. Sometimes orphaned babies, sometimes elders who’ve been abandoned, sometimes young upstarts, and every now and again; a pet that couldn’t be handled by its previous owner.

Derek is more than one of these things. He showed up at the house as a small, wiggling pup; blanketed in soot and reeking of smoke. His home had burned down; and Derek was the only pup out of his litter to survive. Even his parents perished. His owners brought him to the shelter home, unable to take care of him with their own home now being a black skeleton resting in its own ashes.

The pup was left at the house, wondering where the only world he’d ever known had gone.

By the time that Derek was a year old or so, he was a bundle of nervous energy. He became an eager to please pup that tripped over his too big paws and chewed and gnawed at everything. He yipped at the birds and chased the cats, excited and pleased about everything and anything.

Then, he was adopted.

A young couple had visited the shelter and had fallen in love with the pup the moment they’d laid their eyes on him. A day had barely passed before they brought the excitable puppy home. Derek couldn’t have been happier.

Less than a year later, Derek was dumped back into the hands of the shelter house. The couple had explained guiltily that the pup had been too much for them to deal with. That he destroyed their couch cushions and tore up their backyard and he barked and chewed constantly and that things would only get worse as he grew older. They promised to visit him as much as they could.

They never showed up after that. Not once.

Derek changed after that. He grew from a brash, coltish pup into a hulking, cantankerous adolescent. No one even attempted to adopt him. He stayed at the shelter home for years, he’d seen animals come and go; animals he’d begrudgingly called friends.

As the years passed, he melted into the shadows. He spent his days either sprawled across the carpet or prowling the grounds of the shelter. He avoided contact with the other animals, but somewhere along the way he’d become somewhat of a supervisor. He’d break up fights between anxious tom cats and make sure the younger animals kept out of trouble. But he never became emotionally attached. It was never worth it, in his eyes.

His priorities however, changed when a fluffy, runt of an orphan showed up and busted through his wall of comfort.

\----

One day, the _Ownerhumanfemale_ burst through the front door with a blanket bundled in her arms. The bundle smelled of milk and new life; tiny, pathetic squeaks emanated from within its wooly depths.

She spoke a few garbled human words to Derek before kneeling and gently placing the bundle on the plush blanket that she’d previously laid down. She unwrapped the bundle gingerly, and out tumbled three dark puffs of fur.

Derek stepped forward cautiously and sniffed at the small balls of fluff. They were kittens. Each one was barely the size of Derek’s paw, their eyes were squeezed shut and their toothless pink mouths were wide open and wailing. The all had solid dark fur; except for one. This one was smaller than the others and was flopped onto his back, soft underbelly exposed to the world. His tiny toes were white, accompanied by a white dash on his chest. He was the runt.

The dog thought nothing of the kittens. Yes they were new arrivals, but they were nothing special or unique. They’d be adopted within a week. In and out of the hustle and bustle of the shelter so quick their scent wouldn’t even catch. And Derek would move on and forget about them.

As it turns out, Derek was wrong. Well, he was halfway wrong. But he was half way right too. It was a double edged sword.

The two pure black kittens, stronger and already walking on young wobbly legs, had been adopted. Whisked away without so much as a squeak, leaving their scrawny, tuxedo furred sibling behind.

The humans gave the tuxedo kitten a name. A jumbled assortment of vocal strums that held no meaning to the animals. The distorted mess of sounds was ‘Stiles’.

Derek still doesn’t understand how or why the humans formulate such strange designations. But he doesn’t question it.

He lay on his stomach with his head resting on his paws, watching the small kitten scramble about on the floor, mewing and wailing for attention. _Stiles_ had just been fed the foul smelling milk mockup through a human bottle, but he still seemed to be unsatisfied.

Stiles shillyshallied about on his weak little legs with his tiny tail standing ramrod straight up in the air. Finally, he plopped down and threw his head back, squalling at the injustice of it all.

Derek huffed and closed his eyes. It wasn’t his job to comfort crying babies.

\----

Stiles just didn’t get it! The warm bodies that he used to curl up to were gone, just gone! They usually were never too far, and it only took a small bit of squealing to get back together. He’d been crying and mewing for far too long, and they still hadn’t shown back up. What was he going to do? He couldn’t sleep by himself!

He sat down and looked up at the black furry beast laying prone on the couch before wailing once more, putting as much emotion and distress into the cry as possible. Unfortunately, the beast just snuffled into his paws and closed his eyes, subsequently ignoring the kitten’s pleas.

Stiles hung his head, heart heavy. He wasn’t sure what to do; his full belly was making him sleepy, but he really, _really_ didn’t want to fall asleep alone. He’d never done it before, and he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to.

Luckily, there were plenty of other possible warm bodies to sleep with, right?

He waddled over to the nearest animal that wasn’t the beast. It was a scraggily brown and black dog, smaller than the beast, but definitely bigger than Stiles. The dog was lying on its back and was snoozing peacefully, completely unaware of the attention starved kitten approaching it.

The kitten stopped only a few inches from the dog and poked its side with a tiny paw and then mewled loudly. Startled, the dog rolled onto its belly and gave the kitten an annoyed look.

Stiles mewed again, this time much louder, and pushed at the dog again. The dog curled its lips in response and stood up suddenly, knocking the kitten onto his back. With an exasperated noise, the dog padded around the kitten and disappeared into the kitchen, clearly not having any time for the baby.

Whining petulantly, Stiles lifted himself onto unsteady paws and looked around the room for other possible sleeping buddies. His eyes landed on a strange black and white animal with a long fluffy tail that was bigger than him but not by much. The colors reminded the kitten of his mama.

He mewed excitedly and toddled over to the strange animal, which eyed him curiously. The strange animal made a strange squeak and leaned forward, poking its pink nose into Stiles’ fur. Stiles mewed again and wiggled his little butt in excitement, maybe he finally found someone to sleep with. He lowered himself to his belly and crawled toward the strange animal, hoping it would catch on and curl up with him. Its fluffy tail would be nice to tuck his paws under.

The strange animal simply tilted its head down at the kitten before squeaking again and stalking away, tail lifted high as it did so. Stiles whined and watched the animal leave out through the door flap. It didn’t seem to have time for Stiles either.

On the verge of a full blown breakdown, the kitten looked frantically around the room.

There were no other animals left. Except for the beast, and an intimidating looking bird with white feathers and a pale yellow frill on the top of its head.

The bird took one look at Stiles and squawked loudly, frill puffing up defensively.  

Stiles jumped back at the bird’s unjust behavior, suddenly feeling more alone than ever. Even more alone than when mama left.

Crying and whimpering weakly, the kitten wobbled over to the blanket once more and curled up into an impossibly small and tight ball within its folds. Maybe when he woke up, his siblings would be curled around him like before.

\----

Derek woke up suddenly. He’d no idea why, maybe it was the silence that woke him.

He looked around the room, scanning for disturbances, and paused when his eyes landed on Stiles. The kitten was curled up on the blanket by himself, tiny flanks puffing in and out with each breath.

Derek eyed him for a moment, an unwanted feeling of nostalgia washing over him. Memories of himself as a young pup flashed through his mind, of sleeping in a warm pile with his siblings, then suddenly having that warmth and comfort ripped away from him. Leaving him alone and absorbing any attention that was offered to him, curling by himself in a lonely bed.

He gave a yielding sigh and hopped off of the couch, quietly padding to the blanket where Stiles slept soundly. Just as he set paw on the blanket, that annoying cockatoo squawked loudly several times. Derek silenced it with a venomous warning glare. The bird quieted immediately and shuffled on its perch, embarrassed.

Derek huffed at it once more before lowering himself down next to the kitten, close enough that the ball of dark fur was curled into the small space between his chest and foreleg. Stiles loosened a bit at the warmth pressing down on him and yawned widely.  Derek sighed and pulled the kitten closer to his chest and dipped his head down to give the kitten a few gentle licks over his fragile back.

Stiles purred at the warmth, his purr was barley anything more than a light trill. After laving the kitten for a few minutes, Derek laid his head down; sheltering the kitten with the thick fur of his neck. The kitten squirmed slightly under him but eventually settled, his purr tapering off into silence.

Derek remained awake, staring absently out through the sliding glass door. Somewhere, deep inside, he hoped that this kitten would end up like him. Not being adopted, but left here with the mismatched family of abandoned souls. He’d never admit to it though.

 

 

\----

**Author's Note:**

> comments and the like are much appreciated  
> i have a [tumblr](http://kakashipng.tumblr.com) if you're interested (ʃƪ ˘ ³˘)


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